


Home Is Wherever I'm With You

by Nevheera



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-20
Packaged: 2017-11-07 10:28:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevheera/pseuds/Nevheera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He turns to follow Scott out, but Stiles can't keep his eyes from the tense lines of Derek's back or ignore the twinge in his gut at leaving him in this broken, burnt house full of bad memories."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So... I am by no means a writer. What I mean is, I don't often do it, so I'm really rusty. I started this on a whim and it got WAY out of hand. I never meant it to get so long!! I have about 14k words so far and it's not even CLOSE to being done.
> 
> I'm posting the first chapter to see if maybe I can motivate myself to keep going. 
> 
> I hope you like it and I hope it flows. Please feel free to leave feedback, I have no idea what I'm doing. <3
> 
> edit: I'm trying to go back in and fix all my tenses confusion. Let me know if you see any mistakes!!

Ever since Derek became the alpha they would start having pack meetings at his house. It was fine at first: the group of four and sometimes Allison too would huddle around in Derek’s crumbling old house and talk about what to do next. The pack was stronger in numbers and they needed each other to talk territories and how to control their powers. After a while though, especially after a rain, the smell really got to be a problem.

Jackson, with his newfound senses can barely get through a meeting without not-so-subtly holding his nose, and Scott, who has been to the burned house several times before starts to really get agitated. Even Stiles, whose sense of smell isn't even half of the wolves', can barely stomach it after a few hours.

"How do you stand it?" Jackson belly-aches one night after an awkward silence stretched between the four. 

Derek stares at him hard, looking up from a map of the Hale’s outlying property. 

"How do I stand what?" his eyes narrow. 

"The SMELL?"

A flicker of something passes behind Derek's eyes. It happens so quickly that Jackson who was still holding his nose didn't seem to notice but Scott who sat to the left of Jackson, elbows him swiftly in the ribs. 

"What, McCall? Don't pretend it doesn't bother you too." he stage whispers irritably. Jackson gets up and walks to the charred doorway.

"If we're done here...? I have better things to do with my time."

"Yeah, go." Derek says gruffly. "We'll meet again next week on the border of the property line." he turned away.

"Thank god," mutters Jackson as he sprints away,

Stiles and Scott get up to leave as well, Scott checking his cell for texts from Allison but as Scott walks through the door distractedly, Stiles hangs behind.

“Have you...” He starts and stops when Derek turned to look at him sharply.

“Have I what?” 

Stiles scratches the back of his neck nervously, “Well...do you actually live here? Aren't you tired of it? I mean, now that things have settled down, you could look for a new place to li-”

“Why don’t you mind your own business.” The retort doesn’t have as much heat as they normally does. He turns away again.

“Come on Stiles, let’s go.” He hears Scott say from the other room.

He turns to follow Scott out, but Stiles can't keep his eyes from the tense lines of Derek's back and the twinge in his gut at leaving him in this broken, burnt house full of bad memories.

 

\-----

 

That night as Stiles lay in bed, he couldn’t stop thinking about Derek. It was strange to be thinking about him without his usual animosity, but ever since the situation with Peter Hale he had really started to chill out. The guy had started to lose his tightly coiled anger, leaving him instead with this lingering, quiet sadness. Now that the last of his family was dead, all that was left was a charred house. 

Stiles figured before the whole final battle that Derek stayed in that house as a constant reminder of his drive to search for the alpha and the ones responsible for his family's death. But now that they had been avenged and Peter was dead, Stiles wondered what he had left besides memories in a house that constantly reminded him of what he had lost.

Stiles could relate, in a way. His house had constant reminders of his mother. Even though it had been five years since her death, his father was still unable to throw anything of hers out. Half of his fathers closet still had his mother’s clothing in it, there was still her jewelry on their bureau and her perfume in the bathroom. The thought of getting rid of these things was more painful than seeing them everyday. Stiles understood but it still hurt.

Sometimes, if Stiles was especially hurting; if his father was out all night on patrol and there was nothing that could stop his panic attacks, he would sneak into the bathroom and spray a little bit of the perfume. It was horrible and wrong but it made him feel like just maybe a little bit of her was still with him. He would close his eyes and breathe it in and pretend. If only for a moment.

He turns over in bed and clenches his eyes shut. 

Until he met Derek he thought his situation was practically unbearable. But Stiles still has his father, still has pictures of her, still has his home. Derek has nothing.

It doesn’t sit well with him, and nobody deserves that, not even that asshole Derek.

Resigning to the fact that he wasn't going to get any sleep, he gets up and pads over to his desk and flips open his laptop and starts to do what he does best: research.

 

\-----

 

"Mr. Stilinski"

"MR. STILINSKI."

He jerks awake to the sight of Mr. Harris looming over his desk.

"I know that you are no doubt absorbing my lecture while sleeping, I would appreciate it if you would at the very least, attempt to stay awake."

He blinks several times and ignores the snickers from his class. He's so tired he doesn't even respond with his usual snide quips. He just nods and rubs his eyes.

The teacher returns to the front of the class after giving him an incredulous look at his lack of snark. He feels a jab from behind.

"Are you feeling ok?" Scott whispers.

"Yeah, I'm fine,” he responds, “I just didn't get any sleep last night."

"Why not? Is something up?"

He shakes his head and rests his head on the table, practically feeling Scott's stare. 

\----

"Are you going to tell me what’s going on?" Scott asks at lunch as they set their trays down.

Yawning, Stiles looks at him as he opens his chocolate milk carton. 

"I was just doing some research" He says as jackson and Allison sit down with them.

"Has something happened?" Allison asks worriedly, sitting next to scott. 

"No no, it’s not a big deal, really. I was just...I don't know."

"You don't know a lot of things." Jackson remarks as he rubs his eyes tiredly. 

"Har har..." 

"No but really, what were you researching that you stayed up all night doing it?" asks Scott.

He sighs and realizes he really shouldn't've said anything at all; they're all looking at him now. He feels a flush starting in his ears and neck and knows he won’t be able to hide this. It's not even a big deal!

"It's not a big deal" he repeats aloud. "I was just... I don't know" He scratches his neck. "It's just... I feel bad that Derek lives in that house that's falling apart and..."

"Don't tell me..." Jackson rolls his eyes.

"I was just looking at house repair stuff, it was really interesting." he shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Stiles... you have got to be kidding me." Scott gives him a look.

"What?" he stubbornly refuses to look at any of them in the eye, instead focusing on his slice of pizza and wax beans. not the best combination in retrospect. And he got chocolate milk to go with this? What was he thinking? “It’s not like I’m going to do anything, I was just looking.”

“There is no way Derek would ever even consider redoing that house, you know how he is.” Scott says as he takes a large bite of his sandwich. “I thought you hated him, anyway.”

Stiles doesn’t respond, just nods absently, still not looking anyone in the eye. It’s not like he’s going to arrive on Derek’s doorstep in a pair of overalls and a few buckets of paint and just expect derek to let him in. It just bothers him that he lives in a house with half a roof and floor boards that probably crumble when he walks on them. He finds he can’t stop thinking about it. 

——

The next time the pack groups up, Allison joins them and they talk about werewolf things while Stiles and Allison sit there and try to pretend they know what they’re talking about. 

Stiles gets bored of playing Angry Birds on his phone and tries to slip out of the room unnoticed. 

“Where are you going?” Allison asks, pleading with him with her eyes to stay and not leave her bored while the werewolves talk about sniffing butts or whatever it is they do. 

“Oh um… nature calls?” He says with a grin and slips out through the (barely) sliding glass doors. 

Once in the hallway he pulls out a measuring tape from his hoodie’s pocket and goes around the hallways taking a few measurements. 

He read on a few blogs that you need to have a good floor plan before you start any big project, so he goes to the boarded up windows and writes down the numbers on a small notepad in his pocket. It’s not like he’s actually going to do anything, he’s just curious. Or at least, that’s what he keeps telling himself. Now that the idea has firmly planted itself in his head, he can’t get it out. Maybe he’d make a blueprint just for fun and make up a rough estimate for how much it’d cost to fix up a place like this. 

It’s not like Derek would ever let him help anyway. He probably wants to live in misery. He seems like that kinda guy, the kind of guy who would rather mope around than change his situation. Yeah, so Stiles will just see if it’s even possible before he asks Dere— before he pretends to make a plan for the house. 

He’s measuring the stairs, still thinking about how dumb derek is when a voice breaks his reverie. 

“What are you doing, Stiles?”

He jumps about a foot in the air and drops his measuring tape that he borrowed from his father. It clatters down a few steps and he quickly scrambles to snatch it up. 

“O-oh, um, nothing!” he squeaks, “nothing at all!” and sidesteps the taller man to hurry back into the room where Scott and Jackson are still talking.

He misses Derek’s skeptical look.

They finish up the meeting, Stiles avoiding Derek’s pointed look throughout the rest of the evening. When they get up to leave, he can see Derek contemplating cornering him, he can see it in his eyes. Thankfully Scott intervenes. 

“Hey, do you want to come over my house tonight? We could work on homework.” Scott smiles his best please I’m begging you smile.

By which he means Stiles can help by doing almost the whole thing for him.

But this is a perfect escape, and there’s no way he’s passing it up.

“Sure buddy, let’s go!” He throws his arm around Scott’s shoulders and leads him out. 

That was too close.

——-

It feels like it's been months since Stiles has gone over to Scott's house. Scott has been so busy being a good boyfriend that he completely forgot to be a good friend. Stiles is actually surprised that he realized it himself. Or no, wait a minute, this is totally Allison's doing. 

He sits on Scott's bed while his friend pulls out his homework from his backpack and flops down next to him. 

"Have you finished your English paper yet?" Scott whines, rolling his face onto his notebook.

"Scott, it was due yesterday."

"What?" He cries. "Why didn't you tell me! I'm so done for!" 

Stiles rolls his eyes, "I'm just kidding you knucklehead. Yes I finished it, but it's due on friday. You gotta get your head out of the clouds dude."

Scott levels a weak glare at him, his face still pressed into his notebook on the bed. "Why are you done so early? You never used to finish your homework on time." 

Stiles doesn't say anything just purses his lips and bounces his leg a little. 

"Eughh, don't tell me you're still thinking about Derek's house. He'd kill you before he even let you near-"

"So has your mom said anything about Lydia's progress?" He interrupts. 

Scott sighs, "Yeah, she says she's eating more and, as she put it, 'has more color in her face'. I'm assuming that's a good thing."

Stiles lies back on the bed, "That's good. I should go visit her again soon." He turns to look at Scott. "How about this friday, want to come with me?" 

Scott opens his notebook and flips through it idly. “I can’t, Derek’s making me and Jackson go on this day-long run around Beacon Hills. Something about making us get along better or something, I don’t know. Sounds completely bogus to me.” 

It may be a lost cause for Scott and Jackson bonding, but maybe Stiles could use that time to his advantage. He just needs a few more measurements of what’s left of the room upstairs and then to find out if the support beams of Derek’s house are sturdy and intact and he can complete his fantasy renovation. Maybe if he gets enough research he can buy a junk house in the future and fix it up. 

“All day, huh? That sounds lame.”

“I know! I was supposed to take Allison out to this new place...”

Stiles tunes him out and starts making his plan. If Derek is out of his house, maybe he can sneak in and make a few more measurements. A completely foolproof plan. He’d be in and out before they ever knew he was there. 

What could possibly go wrong?

 

\----------

 

That friday, true to form, they opt out of their weekly meeting routine to have a werewolf-only run, which leaves Stiles to his own devices. It’s close to the full moon so he understands that the mutts want to go run off their steam... but he’s so bored.

The only thing he’s had to entertain himself lately is imagining how he’d renovate Derek’s house. He really doesn’t even understand why he’s so obsessed with this lately. Usually when he researches things he absorbs all of the information he can before his legs starts bouncing and his fingers tapping and he needs to find a different outlet to channel his energy. His short attention span is usually completely overwhelming, but after reading countless DIY blogs and taking out a few carpentry books from the library, he realizes that for the first time in his life, this is something he’d want to actually act upon. It has a little to do with concern for Derek but ultimately he realizes, he finds the idea of stripping a house and rebuilding it from the ground up to be really exciting. He’s never had something hold his interest so long, so he thinks it must be a good thing. Though he’s never done anything like it, that’s what research is for, right?

He sighs, wishing he had the balls to offer the idea to Derek but he knows exactly how that’ll go. With a snarl and a shove against a wall. He’d like to live, thank you very much.

He sits at his desk restless, spins around in his chair a few times, flips through the books on his desk before getting up and pacing. 

The boys won’t be back for at least a few hours, that gives him a little time to do a little reconnaissance mission right? It’s not like he’s going to HURT anything. It’ll just sate his curiosity. He’s so bored.

“Ugh, just get it OVER with Stilinski.” He mutters to himself. 

He trots downstairs, and locks the door to the empty house. 

The drive to the woods is surprisingly short, but when he gets out he shuts the door quietly just in case. 

He sees no sign of anyone, wolf or otherwise, but tiptoes around anyway.

He pulls out his tape measure again and finishes the measurements he started last time. He knocks on the walls, trying to find out where the beams are. If they’re rotted, this house is a lost cause, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. 

He fills his notebook with all the different room dimensions. The rooms are all gray and moldering, and most of the floorboards creak when he walks over them. He runs his hand over the flaking wallpaper and watches as it flutters to the floor. There are beams of light peeking through the boarded windows, catching the dust particles in the air. Jackson was right, there really is an underlying smell to this place. It smells like... the word “acrid” comes to mind, but also “stale”. It makes his throat itch and his eyes water a bit, though some of that might have to do with the thick layer of dust everywhere. 

He wipes at his nose and continues through. 

This house must have been enormous, he thinks as he walks around. The rooms are large with high ceilings and even though the house has been almost entirely burned, he can tell by the rather obvious fact that it is still standing almost 10 years after it was burned down, that there must be some good structure holding it up. He walks through a living room, the one that the pack usually sit in when they talk shop. There are pieces of furniture thrown around, burnt curtains on the windows and what looks to be part of a piano in the corner. He passes through a doorway with hinges that has pieces of the door left hanging (derek must have been angry one day) into a large kitchen area. There are cracked tiles scattered all of the floor. If he thinks hard enough and pictures it just right, he can imagine how it must have looked. 

He grins and pulls out his notebook and sketches in where the kitchen was. He takes the appropriate measurements and heads to the second floor. There isn’t much left up there, but the main hallway and at least two of the rooms are still semi intact. A majority of the back of the house is completely bareboned though. 

He’s counting windows in what must have been a guest room when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. He walks around some debris and a dilapidated mattress with coils sticking out to peer through the shattered window. 

There are shadows in the crest of the trees and then yep he’s fucked. The three of them are coming back. Oh shit oh shit, he is so fucking busted. 

Even if he managed to escape unnoticed they’d see his car and...what was he thinking?? They’ll smell him the moment they get inside. This was really not one of his most brilliant plans now that he stands here about to be caught red handed in Derek fucking Hale’s house. Will he ever get used to having to take extra precautions about werewolf senses?

Nonetheless he tries to calm his heartbeat so he can at least attempt to make his escape without his heart giving him away right off the bat. He sidesteps the junk on the floor and traverses the creaky floorboards towards the door when he hears a slow cracking noise.

He doesn’t even have the chance to cry out before the floor he’s standing on gives way and he’s plummeting through the floor. He throws his arms out and manages to catch the edge of the floor on his stomach, but he’s already almost completely through. He scratches for purchase and searches desperately for something to grab, anything to haul himself back up. All he succeeds in doing is getting dust in his eyes and splinters in his stomach. He manages a strangled “Help!” before he finally slips and falls through.... and lands with an ‘oof!’ in Derek’s arms. 

He meets Derek’s glare shakilly and tries to huff a terrified laugh. 

“N-nice catch?” He offers weakly.

Derek rolls his eyes and drops him. Stiles lands with a thud on his bottom. 

He looks up to see Scott and Jackson looking on in amusement, and he scowls at them while reaching for where his notebook fell. He dusts it off and then himself. 

“Well uh... fancy meeting you here! I’ll just be... on my way.” 

He goes to limp out of the room but is cut off by a fuming Derek.

“Just what do you think you were doing here?” Derek bites out, clearly grinding his teeth.

“I uh,” He responds helpfully, “I left...something here last time.” He lies.

Derek looks so wholly unconvinced that Stiles decides a hasty exit is in order.

“Well, uh, I’ll see you guys later!” 

He limps out as fast as he can, clutching the notebook to his chest, ignoring the incredulous looks he leaves behind him.

He is so in for it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just wanted to thank everyone who actually read the first chapter of this story! It got a lot more attention than I thought it would :') It really did boost my drive to work on this more!! 
> 
> Here's the next chapter earlier than I intended to post it, I hope you like it! <3

His heart is still pounding by the time he gets home. 

He goes up to his room and drops his bag on the floor, collapsing on his bed. He barely has time to sigh in relief before he feels hands grip his collar and is heaved off the bed and slammed against the wall. See? Wall. He knew it!

The air is forced out of him with strong hands, and he's forced to look into bright green eyes flashing red with anger.

"I know you've been sneaking around these past few weeks what are you up to?"

Styles opens his mouth to respond but is interrupted,

"And don't even try to lie to me"

He snaps his mouth shut and his eyes flicker to the books on his desk, regretting it instantly because Derek follows his gaze.

"It's nothing, I just.." he says helplessly as Derek drops his feet back to the floor and walks over to his desk to pick up one of the library books.

"Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes...?" he mutters before realization lights his eyes.

Derek brushes his fingers over the post-it's sticking out of the pages and then picks up the notebook he was using for measurements and drawings. He traces one of the drawing before slamming it down on his desk and whirling on him again his eyes flashing red.

“Just what the fuck is this?" he growls.

Stiles doesn't know what to say. I felt bad that you live in a ruin and was imagining a way to fix it up? The research was more fun than I thought and I got a bit carried away? Please don't kill me?

He ends up with "I... I..."

“You...?” Derek stalks up to him, and MAN had Stiles forgotten how scary Derek could be.

"I just..."

"You just what?"

"If you would let me finish!!" he says exasperated. "I figured since all of the business with the alpha is over with... I mean you don't want to live in the ruins of... If you ever wanted to..." god he was stuttering like an idiot, but he was getting stared down by a werewolf who was looking more and more pissed by the second. This was not looking good.

He feels the hand around his neck before he can process what was happening.

"Don't make assumptions about me." he feels hissed in his ear. His heart pounds and he wonders why he ever thought this was a good idea. Why did he ever think Derek fucking Hale would ever appreciate any sort of effort on his part. He was just a stupid human to him. Useless and weak.

He reaches up and shoves hard at Derek's shoulders, catching him off guard enough to slide away.

"You know what, forget it. It was a stupid fucking idea. So sorry if I felt bad that you had to live in a charred house full of memories that you probably want to forget," he says pacing his room, "So freaking sorry that I took the effort to research ways to renovate a house so that it could be a home again, so that you could have some meetings in a place that didn't smell like burnt and rotting rafters, that wasn't a hazard to everyone’s health not only yours."

In his angry pacing he misses the look passing across Derek's face.

"But no, Derek Hale doesn't need any help, he can just be a lone wolf for the rest of his life and just be friggen ALONE in his tall, dark, mysterious, brooding way. He doesn't need help from some stupid. Useless. Human."

Derek stops his tirade with a hand on his wrist.

Stiles stops and looks at him.

"I don’t know how it must feel to live in the house where such horrible things happened." he continues quietly, not pulling away from Derek’s hand. "But I know how painful it is to see reminders everyday of someone you lost. It really sucks,” he whispers. “...but It must be ten times worse for you. Don't you want to do something about it?"

Derek is silent, he stares at Stiles for a long time. He tries to quiet his pounding heart, knowing Derek can hear it and is probably trying to read his intentions. To tell if he is lying.

Finally his gaze drops and he lets go of Stiles' wrist.

Right as Stiles opens his mouth to say more, Derek had already leapt out his window.

He sighs.

That went well.

\-----

For the next few weeks Stiles avoids the pack meetings. 

After the initial teasing he gets at school from Scott and Jackson is over, they nag him nonstop about coming back to the meetings. Jackson thinks he’s being a dumbass and that he should just get over it, while Scott insists that he told him so, and that he should just drop the idea completely and come back. Allison tries to convince him to come back too, mostly so she can have someone to sit with while the boys have their territory talks and their updates on how their control of the curse is doing. 

It’s not that he wants to avoid them but he doesn’t think he can face Derek right now. He’s still angry and embarrassed and more than anything, he’s hurt that all his efforts were completely disregarded. 

He tries to tell himself he has no business there and that they don’t really need him anyway, but in the end he’s just lonely and bored and just wants his pride to unstick from his throat so he can go back.

After Derek had left that night he angrily threw his notes in the trash and stuffed the library books into his book bag so he could return them to the library the next day. He totally didn’t fall onto his bed and yell into his pillow at all. Why the fuck would he do that? It’s not like Derek Hale has any sort of effect on him, it’s not like he CARES about him. At all. Like, not even a little bit. 

He keeps up with this avoidance regimen for a few more days before it finally culminates. 

After World War 2 history, Scott approached him looking a little confused.

“Stiles, hey,” He says, “What are you doing after school today?”

Stiles hefts his bag over his shoulder and gives Scott a look. They haven’t hung out like friends in way too long. 

“Why, you want to do something? The Avengers is out, we could go see that!” He grins at him. 

“Oh, um, well actually..” Scott says as they walk down the hallway through the crowds of people. “Derek actually asked me to bring you to the meeting tonight. I mean, that is-” Scott backtracks as he sees Stiles’ face close up, “Only if you wanted to of course...but we really miss you you know?”

Stiles roles his eyes. “Yeah I’m sure I’m a real loss to the team, what with my witty one liners and incredible ability to stick my foot in my mouth. How could you guys possible function without me.” He mutters. “Look Scott, I just... I know I’m being ridiculous, but ugh I just HATE that guy. It’s like no matter what we do he just doesn’t appreciate anything. Is it so much to ask that he expresses some form of gratitude?”

“Honestly,” Scott Said, “I don’t think he knows how.” 

A little shocked at something even vaguely insightful coming out of Scott’s mouth, he stops and thinks about it. 

“Just... he told us to try to get you to come tonight, me and Jackson and Allison. I guess I got to you first, but I really think that maybe he wants to apologize? I don’t know but, trust me when I say these last few weeks have seriously sucked.”

That’s news to him. 

“...Really?” He asks. 

Scott scoffs, “Ch’yeah? Derek has been ten times more of an asshole than usual. All gruff and tough and stupid werewolf back at full throttle. Seriously, if nothing else we could use your comic relief.”

While he feels like he should be a bit insulted by that, for the first time in weeks he feels like he could maybe go back and face the stupid sour wolf. 

He sighs dramatically anyway, “I GUESS I could, but only if you buy me lunch today. I want some of those tatertots, and I dont really feel like eating this bologna sandwich.”

Scott laughs and slings his arm around his shoulder, “ANYTHING to lighten up the mood at those meetings. Seriously man, we’ll be glad to have you back.”

Stiles feels lighter than he has in weeks.

\----

The meeting goes by completely normal. In fact it’s like nothing has happened at all. 

Stiles isn’t sure if he’s relieved or annoyed by that. 

In either case, no one mentions that he was caught sneaking around Derek’s house a few weeks ago and fell through the ceiling. Stiles sits bored with Allison and play MASH while the boys work on maps of the forest. He yawns as he checks off the last of Allison’s choices. 

“Man, you’re not gonna like your life, Al.” He says, amused. 

“I’m not a Janitor again, am I?” 

“Nope, you’re an astronaut, but you’re marrying Derek and you’re living in detroit with 20 kids.” He chuckles. 

They both laugh at the game and Stiles flips it over to start a new one when Allison turns to him and says meaningfully, “I’m glad you’re back Stiles. I missed having you here.” 

He smiles at her. It feels nice to be back, even if the one person he wanted to welcome him back hasn’t even spoken one word to him. 

He looks over at Derek and sighs. Why did he even ask for him to come tonight if he wasn’t going to speak to him. He rubs his hand through his hair restlessly. 

He and Allison continue to play paper games until the meeting is over. 

Everyone starts getting up to leave and Stiles has a vague feeling of disappointment. He didn’t really know what he was expecting but... well. He shrugs on his flannel jacket and turns to Scott so he can drive him home.

“Oh I’m getting a ride with Allison today, but thanks!” He says quickly and it’s so obviously staged he just gapes at him. 

Scott rushes out with his girlfriend in tow, waving at him as she’s pulled away. He turns to Jackson who just leers at him before sauntering out the room. 

“Okaayy...” he says. He turns around to say goodbye to Derek but finds him right behind him. 

He does NOT jump. Not at all.

“Jesus Christ, I swear we need to put a cowbell on you or something.” He shifts uncomfortably under Derek’s usual stare. 

Derek doesn’t respond but he reaches into his pocket and pulls out something and hands it to him. 

It drops into his hand and he realizes it’s a pencil he’s been missing for weeks. The one he had with him when he snuck into Derek’s house.

“It’s yours, you left it here.” He mutters. 

Stiles tries really hard not to flush with embarrassment but he’s still mortified by the whole situation. He had WANTED Derek to at least acknowledge him about it but now that he had he wanted to crawl into a hole. 

“Yah, sorry. I mean thanks, but sorry for.. for you know sneaking into your house and all. I mean, it’s not like I was going to steal anything- not that there’s anything TO steal... but oh...god that came out wrong. I just meant that I’m sorry that I broke your floor and all. I mean I was just trying to HELP... but I know I can get sort of overbearing sometimes, I’ll just shut up now.” He ends lamely, spreading his hands abortively.

His heart almost stops when he hears a weird noise coming from Derek. It sounded...suspiciously like a laugh. More like a short puff of air and an incredulous expression, but a laugh nonetheless.

He shakily puts the pencil into his pocket and backs away slowly. You know, just in case Derek’s finally cracked. 

“You are the most ridiculous person...” Derek says as he shakes his head and looks at him almost...fondly? That can not be right. He heard babies smile when they fart, maybe Derek (almost)smiles when he’s hungry? For blood? 

His expression drops and he stares at Stiles hard and seems like he’s thinking something through. 

“Why did you do that research about renovating this place?” He asks. 

Stiles answers quickly, “I already told you why-”

Derek steps closer to him, “No I want to know why you’d even care about this place. Rebuilding a house...that’s a lot of work. More work than even I’d want to take on myself. Why do you want to help so much?” 

Stiles isn’t sure he really even has an answer to that. His heart speeds up a little bit as he tries to think of something that doesn’t sound ridiculous under Derek’s scrutiny. 

“Never mind,” he says quickly after a strange look passes over his face. He backs up and turns away entirely. “Just answer me this,” He says rubbing the back of his neck. Derek looks back around after a moment and asks him seriously. 

“Who have you lost?” 

He’s silent for a long time, trying to figure out how to answer that. For the first time he isn’t filled with the defensive urge to close up and change the subject. He levels Derek with a stare of his own and can see his loss reflected in Derek’s eyes. 

“My mom.” He finally responds. “She died 5 years ago. Car accident.”

Derek’s mouth tightens, “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s ok, I mean...it’s NOT okay but it’s not like you did anything so you don’t have to be sorry.” Stiles looks at the floor, admiring his shoes. He can see Derek’s feet shift and he honestly hopes a chasm will open up beneath him and swallow him whole.

Just as Stiles is trying to think of the least awkward way to leave, Derek finally speaks up.

“This room...” Derek starts, “was the center of our house.” 

Stiles Looks around from the boarded windows to the tipped over furniture. He tries to imagine what it must have looked like when Derek was a child. It was probably really beautiful. 

“All of our meetings were here, all of our holidays were celebrated here. I used to do my homework on the floor right over there with my sister.” he waved his hand in the general direction. “I have so many memories of this room and all of them are painful.” 

The look he turned on Stiles wasn’t an expression he’d ever seen on him before. It was an expression he’d seen on his own face reflected in the mirror many times after his mother’s death. His heart tightened.

“You were right you know, what you said that night.”

“About what?” Surprising himself with how shaky his voice is.

“I am tired. Tired of living here, surrounded by things that remind me of them. Remind me of everything I’ve lost. Now that it’s over I just... I honestly don’t know what to do.” Silence spans between them.

It's the most honesty he's ever heard from him. He's surprised by how quickly he has an answer, as if it had always been true.

Stiles grins wryly. “You have us, you know. You still have a family. We’re your family now.” 

He sees the corners of Derek’s mouth tilt up. It’s something he never thought he’d see. An actual smile, not a creepy maniacal grin or a smug smirk. This smile reaches his eyes.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He smiles, “Thank you.” 

If his heart beats a little faster at the sight, Derek doesn’t say anything about it. Stiles ducks his head instead and grins back crookedly. 

“So...” Says Derek. “If we’re going to do this... We’re doing it right.”

Stiles is full on beaming now. 

“Awesome!!”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, because I know shit-all about renovation.” 

“Don’t you worry, I... well, I threw out my old notes, but I can just measure everything again! I’ll research everything. This is gonna be so sweet!” He babbles. 

Derek grins at him, and takes him around the house to do some new measurements.

“One more thing, Stiles,”

Stiles looks up at him.

“You’re not useless.” 

When he leaves for the night he’s practically giddy with anticipation. He goes to bed with a smile on his face but it’s a very different smile that is the last thing on his mind before he falls to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanna thank everyone who leaves kudos and comments, it really, really means a lot :) I'll do my best to make this as cohesive a story as possible, it's really difficult to write plot, I have to say! I'll very likely be going back through the story many times to fix inconsistencies and errors i've missed. Thank you again, it really heartens me when I see that people have read this fic :') 
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so short, it seemed to flow better with this part on its own!

 

Over the next week he goes into research overdrive. He also rallies the pack into helping him- though that was surprisingly more difficult than the research..  
  
“We’re going to what?” squawks Scott.  
  
“I said we’re going to be renovating Derek’s house.”  
  
“I didn’t volunteer for this,” Jackson says across from the lunch table.  
  
They were sitting in the cafeteria when Stiles had broken the news that they were all going to help Derek with the construction of his new house. After hours of talking and planning of what could go where and estimating costs and labor time, Stiles could barely contain his excitement. Even his friends’ skepticism didn’t deter him.  
  
“I think it’ll be fun,”  
  
“ _Thank_ you Allison, at least someone has a sense of _adventure_.”  
  
He pulls apart his string cheese and tries to keep a level face. “Look, you’re helping whether you like it or not. Don’t you guys want to be able to have a meeting without worrying the ceiling will collapse on our head?”  
  
“Well yeah,” Scott says, “...but can’t we just hire people to do it for us? The house is a total lost cause anyway, they should just tear it down.”  
  
Stiles looks at him sharply, “You know Derek would never let them do that. And besides, I think we can do it ourselves. It’s gonna be cool.”  
  
“For you weirdos maybe, but I’m out.” Jackson scowls, “There’s no way I’m going to sweat my ass off this summer on Derek’s house. He can just do it himself.”  
  
\------  
  
"I can't believe I'm doing this."  
  
"Cheer up Jackson!" Stiles says, clapping his hand on his shoulder, earning him a glare. "We're still only in planning stages!"  
  
Jackson ’s glare turns withering, "What I don't get, Stilinski, is why you're getting such a kick out of this. Have you ever even touched a power tool before?"

  
Stiles grins widely, "Nope! But how hard can it be?"  
  
Jackson covers his face with his hands, groans, and walks over to where Derek and Scott are tearing the boards off the windows. 

 

The dust in the room is illuminated by the new found light shining in. Stiles looks at his (admittedly juvenile) blueprints and compares it to the room in front of him. They are all working on the livingroom at the moment; it seemed like a good place to start. It was the room that everyone knew best, the room that for several weeks now they had spent their time hoping the ceiling wouldn’t cave in over them. 

 

The floors needed sanding for sure. The charred wallpaper needed to be stripped. A majority of the walls needed to be knocked out, and the windows were all broken so those need to go. Thank god Derek had the foresight to order a giant dumpster to be driven to the edge of the property. 

 

With the werewolves' help, the cleaning took no time. Guess their brute strength was good for something after all. Jackson and Scott took the window boards and most of the junk littering the floor out to the dumpster. Allison sweeps the dust and debris off the floor and out of the door in the hallway. For a few hours they tear down, rip off and sweep the entire bottom floor until it was as clean as it was gonna get.

 

It takes them the entire first day to walk around the house and decide what parts needed to be scrapped entirely. Which was, unfortunately most of the house.

 

There was nothing that was thrown out before being inspected by Derek. Every chair or broken table would fall under his sad scrutiny. He would run a hand over it before either allowing them to get rid of it or taking it and putting it in his car. On one occasion they had found a small bookmark, almost completely charred. The ribbon on the end of it was so burnt that only the knot was left. Jackson had found it and immediately went to throw it in the trash bag but Derek grabbed his arm in a firm grip. His face was unreadable, but he snatched the bookmark out of his hand and left for about 20 minutes. Nobody said a word about it. 

 

He watched with a sort of empathy; Stiles still had a book of his mothers with a bookmark still in it from where she left off. He kept it on his bookshelf, a book he will never read because he doesn't want to lose her place. He can't imagine how difficult it must be to just throw out your whole life like this. He tries to keep the guys gentle about it.  
  
By the end of the day everyone’s eyes are red and their noses are runny and tempers are flaring high. When Stiles finally feels satisfied that everything that could be thrown away and torn down without compromising the support beams of the house, they all step back and take a look.  
  
There's almost nothing left. 

 

The flagstone basement, the base of the house, and most of the floorboards from the first floor and the beams running up to an entirely empty second floor. The grey staircase in the middle of the house is the most prominent feature, that and a few pipes running up besides the beams. It's all that's left.  
  
"This is impossible," Jackson groans.  
  
Scott punches his arm, and Stiles tries to smile.  
  
"No way, man. This is how all renovations start, now all we need is a little elbow grease and some ingenuity on yours truly's part and we'll get this going in no time!"  
  
Jackson gives him a look that clearly states what he thinks about that.

  
"Well the dumpster is full, so I guess that's all we can do today." Stiles says, wiping his sweaty hands on his dirty jeans.  
  
Jackson is the first to bound away, griping about wasting his time.  
  
Stiles, Scott and Allison stay behind to talk about what they need to do this week but Stiles reminds them that right now all they have to do is more detailed planning and ordering the materials. They wave goodbye shortly after, asking him if he wants to join them for dinner at Stella's diner,  
  
Stiles turns to look at Derek who hasn't looked away from what's left of the house, his shoulders taut and his fists clenched.  
  
He politely turns them down and walks back over to Derek as they leave.  
  
"Was this a bad idea?" he asks tentatively. Stiles still isn’t too sure that Derek won’t rip his throat out at any wrong move.  
  
Derek doesn't say anything for a long time but when he finally speaks his voice is rough.  
  
"No. No it wasn't." he clears his throat. "They would have wanted this."  
  
Stiles grins at him.  
  
They stand there in comfortable silence for a long time before the sun finally sinks below the trees and Stiles starts to shiver. 

 

“You should go home, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Derek says quietly. 

 

“What about you, where are you going to stay?” Stiles looks up at the second floor of the house. The roof sags sadly on the remaining rafters. “Not that it was safe before, but definitely now I don’t think this is a good place to sleep.”

 

“Don’t worry about me, I have somewhere to go.”

 

“Okay,” He says reluctantly and starts to head to his car. He pulls out from the dirt driveway and watches until Derek’s silhouette fades in his rearview mirror. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So can I just say...
> 
> THAT POOL SCENE. AMIRITE?? Wheeeeeze omg I've been freaking out nonstop since that episode aired. /fans self.
> 
> huff huff omg
> 
> ok, sorry. :-)


End file.
